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The new Shadow of the Beast game

Has anyone here played the new Shadow of the Beast game on the PS4

There was a little bit of hype about it a year ago when the title was announced, and though it seemed to have little in common with the originals I was still rather interested in finding out how this title would turn out to be.
After all I wrote a crappy review of one of the games years ago.

Well apparently it was released a few months ago without much fanfare (it was sort of a budget title on PSN), got a few reviews but afterwards quickly disappeared from the scene again.
I found out about it when I decided to check up on it on Youtube.

Well my thoughts on it are a little mixed, at one side the design team has definitely done quite a good job on a title that in general was always considered more of a graphics demo to display the abilities of the Amiga than really being a fun game to play. (the hit detection was terrible)

The artists have done a pretty impressive jobs on the graphic side of the game, really playing up on the more alien/otherworld-ness aspect of the original games when it comes to creatures and some of the locations and scenery such as that tree with wooden hands.
They even incorporated some of Roger Dean's game covers in the game! You know, the strange mechanical looking animals you never really encounter in the game. That was really awesome to behold when you remember those covers.

On the other hand a lot of the 'Earth-ly' references have been dropped, there was a somewhat medieval vibe at first but even that was still rather different from any real Earth analog.
And I do kind of miss that as I always have liked to imagine that Shadow of the Beast took place on an Earth in the far future, long after our own civilization had passed on, the continents had changed and so on. (sort of like Conan the Cimmerian/Barbarian but in a sort of Dying Earth setting)

I do like some of the new creatures that have been put in as a couple of them are very bizarre looking like the Dryad queen, but there is only a few re appearances of the original enemies. (some people probably won't mind that, but I have to say that some of the more gruesome and grotesque ones really stuck with me for a very long time like those decapitated jumping corpses)

Gameplay wise this game is quite different from the original games, more focused on combat, and a little less on exploration and puzzle solving.
The combat doesn't seem to have been badly done but it does look rather repetitive, and I understand it suffers from control slow down.

A few of the bosses have their own unique combat patterns now and require strategies to defeat them.

Maletoth and Zelek definitely have been improved over their original counterparts, Zelek being pursued by the player during the first half of the game and being a sort of weird floating hooded druid type creature

Zelek, well I don't want to spoil to much but he seemed more like the menace that was he was suppose to be in the series and yet I also found him rather pitiful.

Oh, one thing I also liked is that all the species including the humans in the game use fictional languages and tongue without any analog to real human languages.
Even the subtitles are in this weird alien script/font type.
You can eventually get these translated but you need to finish the game first.

Last edited by Ghost; 3rd August 2016 at 11:33.

Earth is like a 24 hour, Seven days a week Stupidity contest which has been running for centuries.
And every time they are ready to pronounce a winner, a new contender appears on the scene.

* * * *

He has seen half the universe who has not seen the house of pain (Ralph Waldo)

It's mainly inspired by SotB 2. And I agree that was more a system demo than a game. I never got on with the original 2 games as I got bored in them quickly or killed too much. SotB 3 however was brilliant. A proper platform puzzle game that I completed. Great game which of you haven't played is well worth it.

I've not played the new one as I don't own a PS4 yet. I will eventually. I think they have missed a trick not porting it to PC as many original fans will be PC gamers now.

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If you haven't played a classic game in years, it's never too late to start!

I played it and I completed really only because it was a Shadow of the Beast game. Gameplay wise the game is very average, and I know I wouldn't have bothered with it if not for the nostalgia factor. There were quite a few nods to the original which I appreciated, so I could say I got my moneys worth from the nostalgia alone. I agree that they should've released it on PC where most of the retrogamers are. But on the other hand, on the PC we have so many absolutely brilliant small titles from independent developers, so this sub-par game wouldn't be looked at by any others than the ones familiar with the title and probably wouldn't do that well there either.

>SotB 3 however was brilliant. A proper platform puzzle game that I completed. Great game which of you haven't played is well worth it.

Yep, I played it and I think it is the highlight of the Amiga franchise. Good combination between action and puzzles, I just wish the last were not so ruthless, (one mistake and you have to start over), and that there had been more levels.

Really would have liked it if SotB1 and 2 had been remade to play somewhat similar as I do like the imaginative style of the first game. (monsters, castle, underground, elements like looks a little Giger-esque)

Back during my Amiga collecting days I really wanted at least a copy of that game for my collection, but sadly it is expensive.

>I think they have missed a trick not porting it to PC as many original fans will be PC gamers now.

I also found it a strange choice, there are probably a lot more ex Amiga owners who have a PC than a Playstation 4.

Teho

>I played it and I completed really only because it was a Shadow of the Beast game. Gameplay wise the game is very average, and I know I wouldn't have bothered with it if not for the nostalgia factor. There were quite a few nods to the original which I appreciated, so I could say I got my moneys worth from the nostalgia alone.

Yes, I have heard from various news sources that the gameplay is not very good. I could not say that I was very impressed by it when I watched some walkthrough videos of it.
The combat became a little repetitive IMO, rather holding you up from continuing onward. Perhaps it is done because the levels are not that big?
I rather would have had some sort of SotB remake/reboot that had been more of a Metroid-vania like the new Strider was, rather than a 2.5D God of War like game.

>I agree that they should've released it on PC where most of the retrogamers are. But on the other hand, on the PC we have so many absolutely brilliant small titles from independent developers, so this sub-par game wouldn't be looked at by any others than the ones familiar with the title and probably wouldn't do that well there either.

Indeed, it would probably get swamped by indie games that probably look more attractive and play way better than this game.
The main market would have to be the people who still remember their Amiga days, and if the gameplay is not that hot they will probably skip on it or only buy it if is on discount.

Earth is like a 24 hour, Seven days a week Stupidity contest which has been running for centuries.
And every time they are ready to pronounce a winner, a new contender appears on the scene.

* * * *

He has seen half the universe who has not seen the house of pain (Ralph Waldo)